Seeing the current thread for Thermoworks, but not wanting to butt in there.

When I started taking my BBQ seriously, in 2011, I bought two Thermopens from ETI, the manufacturing company here. I later bought a third. I don't know who owns who - Thermoworks/ETI - but they are the same Thermopens you guys buy, and are calibrated and tested.

I really like them, but in the last 10 years, one of the 3 has given out completely (replace battery, nothing), one is taped up to prevent its battery cap falling out (but otherwise works), and one is still going strong.

We've just had a Prime Day here (dunno if UK and US Prime Days are on the same day), and amongst the things I bought were two of these, in black and in red.

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I paid £30 each for my Thermopens in 2011, they would be £40 to replace now. These thermometers are currently priced at £8.99, and were under a fiver each on Prime Day.

I've just tested them against my good Thermopen, in water at 4 different temperatures. They were within 0.3°F from the Thermopen. Simply moving the probe in the water changed the readings by that much, and in any event, if they actually were that much out, would it make any difference to my cooking?

Things I really liked about them, aside from the price.

• Can switch between °C and °F by pressing a switch on the front, rather than open it and flick tiny little levers.
• They have both a hold function and min/max temperatures.
• They have a magnet in the back, allowing it to be stuck to my smoker hopper or (in the kitchen) the fridge, so they are always handy. As well as having a handy meat temperature guide.

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I do think when I bought my Thermopens back then, they were way ahead of any instant read food thermometer. But now?

The °C/°F issue is probably more relevant to me, than anyone else here.

We use °C over here, so all my kitchen cooking is done using that, especially as instructions on packets and such are all in Celsius.

However, most of my BBQ and Smoking books are American, so use the °F scale. So when I am dealing with BBQ, all the temperatures I have in my mind are in Fahrenheit.

Oddly, I don't get confused, although if someone asked me what the safe temperature is for chicken, I could tell them instantly in Fahrenheit, but would have to do mental calculations for Celsius!

Nothing wrong with cheap if it works and suits your needs. I have 2 thermapens, I really like them. I bought a couple of themopro TP18 off amazon a few years ago. They work well, not as fast as the thermapens, but they are thicker and cheaper feeeling, different plastic. They have a magnet on the back to do like you said. For me I used it at times but that was because they were just to bulky for my pocket. I gave all  of them away to people to help them with their cooking. I may have one left.

These types of thermometers have come a long way. There are many on amazon no that look close to thermapens and a lot with different names that look the same, no doubt same china company making them.

The same company ETI making yours and the thermapen, I would buy one of like you have also. No sure if Thermoworks is just the US based ETI company or if they are separate and have them made there and shipped here. That may be some of the extra in the cost.

I think one of the things I liked about these particular cheap ones was although they were obviously the same kind of fold-out design, they were not trying to pretend to be Thermopens. They had their own look, which I thought was good.